Background
He was born on April 2, 1925, at Kutama outside Salisbury into a Shona family, son of a teacher.
He was born on April 2, 1925, at Kutama outside Salisbury into a Shona family, son of a teacher.
Educated at Kutama Mission School then sent to South Africa where he studied at Mariannhill College and Cape Town University. His political activity as a student required him to leave before getting a degree.
Returning home, he took a variety of jobs from clerk to insurance agent. He became president of the Southern Rhodesia African National Youth League, editing its journal “Chapupu” The movement’s success led to the revival of Rhodesia’s African National Congress with Joshua Nkomo as president and Chikerema as vice-president. On February 26, 1959, he was arrested under the emergency regulations and imprisoned without trial.
After his release in 1963 he travelled to Eastern Europe, including Moscow and China. When Nkomo was arrested and his People’s Caretaker Council proscribed he revived the ZAPU title in August 1964, setting up headquarters first at Dar es Salaam and then at Lusaka. In August 1967 the first big guerrilla campaign inside Rhodesia was launched but since the guerrillas achieved little he turned to organising subversion.
Disarray inside the party in exile led him to a showdown in March 1970. He ended the collective leadership, dismissed Moyo, Silundika, Nyandoro and Ndlovu and set up a new military command. The ousted four threatened counter-measures so President Kaunda of Zambia intervened on April 25, 1970, and imposed a reconciliation. Chikerema also had to apologise to Resident Kaunda for the political embarrassment of allowing British television cameramen to take film of guerrilla training camps in Zambia. His Prestige was boosted in 1972 by the way he organised ZAPU supporters inside Rhodesia, to demonstrate to the Pearce Commission that Africans were opposed to the independence proposals, worked out by the British and Rhodesian governments.
Fiery, tempestous character with a strong emotional appeal from a platform but his tough ruthless tactics make him difficult as a committee man. Always struggling to overcome splits in the movement, he tried to impose his authority completely by dismissing the other four members of ZAPU’s War Council but he was forced back into an uneasy truce with them. Impulsive and sometimes over-eager for results, he has had to trim his enthusiasm on occasion after clashes with the Zambian authorities.